1. Simulations for Tanks?

Simulation programs such as SimulationCraft (and its web-based front end Raid Bots) are incredibly useful programs
for World of Warcraft players. They can suggest to you what talents to use, what
gear you have is best for you, or what stats you should prioritize. With the
addition of Titanforging on gear, "simming" has become more and more widespread
throughout the WoW community.

Does this work for tanks? The answer is yes and no. You can simulate DPS
gains for most tanks currently to a reasonable degree. This will have similar
rules to simming damage dealing specs. The difference for tanks is that you
cannot simulate for survivability. There are several factors and metrics for
tanking and different situations will weigh things differently. So the short
version of this answer is, you can simulate for DPS gains, however ignore the
survival side of simulations as there are too many factors that come into play
to get an accurate depiction of what constitutes a survivability upgrade from
simulations.

Currently, Protection Warrior is not properly implemented in
SimulationCraft, and as such you will not get useful results out of
simming your Protection Warrior whatsoever.

2. Combat Logs

Combat Logs are a recording of all actions in a dungeon or raid which are
then formatted in an easy to read way. Websites such as Warcraft Logs serve as a directory where
you can upload your own logs, or examine those of other players. You can use
logs of yourself, or others of your class and specialization, to help improve
your play.

WoW Analyzer is an exceptionally
powerful and easy to use tool for analyzing a combat log. Even if you are
inexperienced with combat logs, WoW Analyzer will quickly provide a wide
variety of suggestions to improve your play, including stat weights.

Unfortunately, just like with SimulationCraft, Protection Warriors have not
been properly implemented in WoW Analyzer.

Even though these tools do not work for Protetion Warriors at the
moment, it is important you know they exist as they will likely become very
useful to you in the future.

3. Changelog

10 Dec. 2018: This page has been reviewed and there are no changes necessary for Patch 8.1.